walking tour: churches and temples

It's been a while since I went on any of the city of Oakland's walking tours. The tours are available May through October, so it's been at least since last fall. And although I've been on all eight of the tours, there's no reason not to go on them more than once. I still learn things, different guides emphasize different things, and they're free! I also look at things differently as I learn more about Oakland and its history. There are connections between things that I didn't know about before.

(note: if you're new to Our Oakland, links with the Open Oakland oak logo in front of them go to Oakland Wiki where you can learn more. Several of the tour participants and I discussed the desire to preserve our the amazing Oakland knowledge of our guide and others; the Oakland Wiki is an attempt to do some of that.)

First Presbyterian

This tour was focused on some of Oakland's historical churches and temples. We met in front of the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland. The current building was constructed in 1914, but the congregation goes all the way back to Oakland's founding, and began meeting in a tent near the waterfront at the foot of Broadway in 1853. Our guide was Don Tyler, a retired Oakland history teacher, and the same guide who led the tour when I last took this one two years ago. Don began by telling us about the various religious services that pre-dated the first congregation, including the Ohlone people and the Spanish.

Then we headed to nearby Temple Sinai, the current home of Oakland's First Hebrew Congregation. Like many other houses of worship in Oakland, it had started downtown, but had moved over the years as Oakland grew. Since it was Saturday, services were in progress, so we couldn't go see the interior. The architect of the building also designed movie theaters, so there are a few features reminiscent of the movie palaces of the day.

We walked over Pill Hill to Saint Augustine's Episcopal Church. It's a bright red wooden church building on Telegraph. Through a bit of luck, we were able to go inside to see the interior and hear about the church's history. It began as two separate churches, Trinity Episcopal Church and St. Augustine's. The wooden building narrowly avoided being badly damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake; seismic retrofit work was finished weeks before the earthquake struck in 1989.

Further down Telegraph we came to First Baptist Church. We were shown around by church member and historian Phil Meads (whose grandfather was one of the church founders). The remarkable building had just been completed in 1904, and Julia Morgan hired to finish the interior in 1906. It was badly damaged by the 1906 earthquake, and so Ms. Morgan was instead hired to repair the structure as well as finish the interior. First Baptist and the nearby Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales had a close relationship, working together on many projects. After the Loma Prieta earthquake, the church was used by the Oakland diocese for services. For more info about First Baptist, see Phil Meads' website.

Then it was over to Lake Merritt to check out the new Catholic cathedral, the Cathedral of Christ the Light. There was some sort of event going on (possibly the installation of the new bishop), with overflow seating filling the plaza, so we couldn't get a very good look at it.

Around the end of Lake Merritt we walked past the Veteran's Memorial Building, and Don told us a bit about it. Before it was built, there were questions about whether a building could be constructed there because it was donated park land. The building was designated a "memorial", and the structure built.

A short distance away is St. Paul's Episcopal Church. The all-brick building is built on land that had been the marshy edge of Lake Merritt, and so was damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake. It required significant seismic retrofit work. Almost next door is the Whole Foods Market, which is the third major thing that's been in the building. Before the grocery store, it was a car dealership, the Cox Cadillac Showroom. But originally it was a car barn and power plant for the Piedmont Consolidated Cable Company's cable car line. The waste steam was used to heat water for the Piedmont Baths next door. Don and I talked a bit about "Borax" Smith and the Key System since most of people on the tour didn't know about them and were curious about Oakland having cable cars and street cars.

The tour was already running long, but we crossed Harrison to the last church on the tour, the First Congregational Church. Unfortunately we weren't able to go inside, but while Don was checking on that I told people about the Judith Offer play that was going to be performed that evening. Compared to What? is a story set against the backdrop of the Pullman Porters in West Oakland.

A long tour, but a good one!

Lots more photos from the walk:


Read more about the churches and temples on the tour on my post from 2011. There are pictures of the interiors of some of the churches we didn't get to go into this time.

happy winter solstice

Happy winter solstice. On this longest night of the year, we welcome the return of the sun, the light in the darkness. May there be peace on earth and the light of wisdom for all.

strange days indeed

Some days just don't go as planned. I had lots of Oakland-y goodness planned for today, starting with a ride down the hill to church at College Avenue Presbyterian, a short ride down to the East Bay Mini Maker Faire to volunteer with the East Bay Bike Coalition and check out the fair, then over to Peralta Hacienda for a walk and lecture made possible by Oakland Urban Paths and the National Park Service. All sounds like good stuff, no?

I hopped on the e-bike and headed to Lake Temescal, as the bike path around it is one of the quicker, more pleasant routes over to Rockridge for me. I was surprised to find an OPD motorcycle cop on the path who signaled me to stop. He said I couldn't go on the path, couldn't go through the park either, and couldn't say why it was closed, just that it was "for another agency." Another agency? The Girl Scouts, the fire department or Homeland Security? There's a lot of different possible reasons there. In any event, I rode back to Broadway Terrace, and down to Rockridge that way. The fact I saw two police cars on my way (which is two more police cars than I normally see on a Sunday) did nothing to assuage my concerns.

I arrived at church a bit later than planned, and noticed that Monte's video display was, well, a bit skewed -- the projector was showing the control screen, and his new laptop was showing the presentation. I checked in with him and quickly fixed it, but it was a further discombobulation for the morning. After the service including another great sermon by Monte, I rushed off towards the Maker Faire, again running a little bit later than I'd planned.

I arrived at Opal and 42nd, the designated place for bike parking for the Maker Faire, and saw...no bikes. After peering around for a bit, someone pointed me down the block to the next gate. I arrived to see the available space full of bikes. Apparently last year, they'd had maybe 40 bikes or so, so the Maker Faire gave EBBC that much space. Well, last year it rained, so a lot of people didn't ride (and probably some didn't go at all). This year, it was warm (and a little humid -- what's up with that?) and sunny, and the space was filled to overflowing. To complicate matters, normally EBBC gets an enclosed space to park bikes in, with one entrance to control access. This space was along the driveway used for musicians and makers to bring in their gear, so we had the back access to worry about, a steady stream of non-bike people going through, and we had to keep the driveway clear. Shortly after I arrived we had to start with a one-out, one-in policy, as we didn't have room for any more bikes until some left.

So when the end of my shift was approaching at 2pm, I asked Max if they'd had any volunteers sign up for the 2pm to closing shift. Given the day so far, I was completely unsurprised to hear that they hadn't. Given the extra challenges, I decided to stay and keep helping. During a bathroom break I checked out a few of the makers nearby, but didn't really get to spend much time there. The Crucible had some cool exhibits, including a truck with a fire calliope sort of thing that kids could trigger from a control panel. There was also a place where kids could make and decorate cardboard rockets, then have them launched into the air from a compressor-powered rig. There were a lot of happy kids I saw, so I'd say the event was a big success even if it wasn't the best organized.

All in all, it wasn't a bad day. Just different than I'd planned.

signs: Jesus Saves Pentecostal

Jesus Saves Pentecostal Church

I've photographed this sign several times, trying to get a good shot. The plastic makes that tough to do, and I've never seen it lit up. So here's a decent but not great shot.

photo journey 3: p is for purple

Pis for purple. And purple is for problematic. I thought I'd have trouble finding enough purple things to shoot without going out of my way, but there turned out to be plenty of purple things on my rides between College Ave. Presbyterian, Camron-Stanford House and home. The problem came because my P&S camera had a hard time registering some of the purples correctly. It even seemed to have a hard time focusing on some of them. So on a second outing I took my DSLR, and while it did somewhat better, it still had problems registering some of the purples. At least it focused on them OK.

Purple is also for Lent, the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter. So in some churches, that means purple vestments for the clergy and purple decorations for sanctuary. I only saw a purple altar cloth, and I have to admit I didn't photograph it along with the other photos, as it would have meant interrupting the service. For some people Lent means giving up something, hence Mardi Gras and Carnival where people live it up before giving things up. In some places like Trinidad & Tobago, Carnival celebrations last for a month, which is almost as long as the 40 days of Lent.

fun in the sun

While other parts of the country freeze, the Bay Area is enjoying some lovely January weather. California may need the rain (and snow in the mountains), but I'm loving the sun and warm temperatures.

Sunday we visited Saint Paul Lutheran again. We're still trying to find the right church for us, but St. Paul is a good fallback. (We've also been enjoying the 2nd Church of Monteskewed in Oakland, aka College Avenue Presbyterian.)

JLS Farmers Market

After church, I'd arranged to pick up some unused bags of dirt from @egratto, aka The Inadvertent Gardener. She lives near Jack London Square, so after we loaded the bags into the trunk of the Prius, K and I walked over to the Sunday farmers market at JLS. We frequently go to the farmers market in Montclair, and have gone to the farmers market near Lake Merritt (on Saturdays), but given the gorgeous weather and the timing, we decided to check it out. It felt less crowded than the others, though that may be because it was more spread out physically.

After picking up a few things, we debated about getting food from one of the stands, heading home, or finally trying Bocanova. With the glorious weather, we decided on the latter, and I'm glad we did -- I'll post more about that later.

I hope you've been able to enjoy some of this lovely spring-like weather we've been having.

windows and shadows

Amtrak artwork

who's my neighbor?

Oscar Grant

Like many, I was both disappointed at the lack of strength of the verdict in the Mehserle trial but pleased that in an unprecedented event, an on-duty officer was found guilty of killing. And like many, I'm disappointed in the few (mostly from out of town) who took advantage of the peaceful protests, by attacking police and looting, but very pleased by those Oaklanders who protested peacefully and tried to keep the peace, and subsequently turned out to clean up and support downtown businesses. The question now is how long of a sentence Mehserle will receive for shooting the unarmed, prone Oscar Grant in the back. I don't know exactly what justice would be in this case, but it's certainly more than a slap on the wrist and time served. I do know it's not killing Johannes Mehserle, even if he'd been convicted of 1st degree murder. The death penalty wouldn't bring Oscar Grant back.

After tensely watching the situation (fortunately not on KRON, which had terrible coverage) and following events on Twitter on Thursday night, K and I went to church on Friday night. We've still been looking for the right church for us here in Oakland, so we've continued to visit a variety of churches. New Birth Church was a different experience for us. It's a plant in Oakland from a large, multi-cultural church in Pittsburg. While it has some of the things we're looking for (good music, full of spirit, outward reaching ministries, etc.) it's probably not the church for us. Not that we weren't made to feel welcome, it just didn't click as 'home' like a church should.

In part we chose to go to New Birth this weekend because it meets Friday night instead of Sunday morning. This Sunday, in about 40 minutes or so is the final of the World Cup between Spain and the Netherlands. Despite the fact the U.S., Mexico, Honduras, and other Oakland favorites aren't in the match, I know that countless people around Oakland will be skipping church or making alternate plans in order to watch it. Even Oakland fire and police chaplain Jayson Landeza will be watching, from Mexico or wherever his roaming has currently taken him.

What do all these people in Oakland have in common? It's all our Oakland. And (whether you're watching the game or not), they're all your neighbors. Today's Gospel in the Lectionary is Luke 10:25-37, the story of the good Samaritan. In one passage, it neatly sums up what the Bible is all about:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

It then goes on to explain that everyone is your neighbor.

That's a sticking point for many people. Everyone? Not just the people here in church with me? (The ones I like, that is.) While the actions of some out-of-town hooligans made me think of some very un-neighborly, un-Christian responses, even those people are our neighbors. Not that they should be let off; but they clearly need some help, too, even if I'm feeling like they need some smiting.

So love your neighbor. The ones next door, the ones across Oakland, the ones across the world. It's all our Oakland, and they're all our neighbors.

signs: Jesus Saves

Jesus Saves

Just off International on Havenscourt is this combo cell tower and sign. I'd never noticed it before, but on my way back from the Habitat construction site (by bike, naturally) I saw it. You really do notice a lot more by bike or on foot.

diversity

Oakland is a wonderfully diverse city, which is part of why so many of us love it.

Thursday I was over to Village Bottoms for an open house, a follow-up of sorts to a workshop at West Coast Green where people from a wide variety of backgrounds brainstormed ideas about how to recreate the area. It's gone through a lot of changes from a terminus of transcontinental railroad to a reemerging neighborhood today. Two of the biggest changes were the building of the Cypress Structure in the 1950s which cut off the area from the rest of Oakland, and its subsequent collapse in the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. Since then residents have been working to reshape the area. We started with a tour led by Marcel Diallo, community activist and businessman in the Bottoms:


I was also there to check out an open house for Central Station, a multi-part housing development in the area, centered around the 16th Street Station that once formed the hub of the Southern Pacific Railroad in Oakland. SFGate.com's Chip Johnson was there and has a nice write-up on the project. There are even some nice green features in parts of the development, like a living roof on the apartment building.

Nearby to the apartments and lofts are The Blackdot Cafe, The Soul Foods Cooperative Grocery Store, and other burgeoning businesses. Food and drinks for the event were provided by Linden Street Brewery, Brown Sugar Kitchen, and other Oakland businesses. There's still a lot of work to do such as cleaning up the old Phoenix Ironworks site, but Village Bottoms is looking up.

Then last night, K and I attended an interfaith service at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, 'Keeping the Faith'. People from a wide range of faith traditions in Oakland, from Jewish to Christian to Buddhist to Native American spoke about the keeping the faith towards a day when Prop 8 will be overturned. It was an amazing service, and a reminder for all that not all people of faith are against gay marriage. Oakland city council-member Rebecca Kaplan spoke about her experiences of being a lesbian and growing up in an orthodox Jewish household, reps from the Episcopal Church and the ELCA (Lutherans) spoke about recent decisions to open the churches to the LGBT community, and Sheilagh Brooks read a powerful poem about her struggles. Around the sanctuary there were banners about different aspects of the struggle and successes. We spotted one that told the story of a former co-worker of K's and her partner. And we all prayed for the elections today in Maine and Washington, that the LGBT communities in those states might have the freedoms that were briefly enjoyed here in California.

a lovely afternoon

We attended Fruitvale Presbyterian Church again today, on monteskewed's penultimate Sunday there before he and his family move to France. He preached another great sermon, and used the analogy of the painter he saw painting the new bike lanes along MacArthur to compare to needing to keep looking where you're going to make sure you're heading in the right direction, but you also need to look up to see the big picture sometimes, too.

Loard's Ice Cream

After some socializing and talking with the supply pastor who will be filling in at FVPC, we headed across the street to Loard's for some ice cream. A quick trip down Fruitvale to Home Depot for some supplies, and we were ready for some more lunch. (Yes, we did have dessert first.)

We headed towards downtown, and decided to get some frites at Luka's. K had never been, but I knew they had good frites and a very nice selection of beers.

Because it was such a beautiful day, we decided to go check out the Cathedral of Christ the Light. On the walk over, we spotted cyclists in the 5th Grand Prix of Oakland racing around the streets.

bike racing

We've both wanted to visit the cathedral since its completion, and today was a perfect day for it. We didn't enter the sanctuary because the Spanish mass was in progress, but we walked around and visited the healing garden, and on the recommendation of the woman in the bookstore, visited the mausoleum underneath the cathedral. It's definitely worth checking out.

below the altar

a very Oakland Sunday

Tribune tower

My wife and I have been church shopping for a while now. We visited Fruitvale Presbyterian where monteskewed is currently pastor, and our neighbor's church in Berkeley, but we've got a fairly long list of ones we want to check out.

So today we visited Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, which was celebrating the 25th anniversary of its formation via the merger of two other UMC churches. The congregation is very Oakland -- diverse. On a church media website I frequent, you'll often hear the phrase "the church is not the building" (we even sang a song about that today), usually when someone wants to include the building in the new church logo they're designing. Churches aren't buildings, they're communities of faith, (hopefully) with a common mission of spreading the Word and living it.

Tiffany mosaic

But Lake Merritt UMC has a nice building overlooking the south end of the lake, with some astoundingly beautiful art, a 3-panel Tiffany mosaic titled Te Deum Laudamus. Each panel is 17' high by 8' wide and made of millions of pieces of opalescent glass. Together they dominate the sanctuary, overshadowing the great view of the lake (even on a beautiful day like today.) Ironically, while Lake Merritt UMC is very diverse, and open and affirming, the mosaic suffers from the same flaw as many classic works of art: everyone in the image is white. Regardless, the pictures don't do the art justice, so it's well worth seeing in person.

After church, we drove around the lake, hoping to find one of the restaurants on our list to check out that was open. Rico's, The Red Door Cafe, etc. were closed, but Golden Lotus was open. The food was great, and it was real treat for me being able to order anything on the menu. We'll definitely go there again. We walked around a bit admiring the beautiful buildings in Oakland, and I had my camera for taking more sign pictures.

Next we continued around the lake and did our grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. While I parked the car K went and got some coffee beans at Peet's. We looped back across the freeway and down MacArthur to Park, and came home to enjoy the rest of this beautiful Oakland Sunday.

small but mighty

Back when I started this blog, I looked around for other Oakland blogs, and besides the amazing A Better Oakland, one of the first ones I found was monteskewed. Monte is (amongst other things) pastor of a small church in the Dimond district, Fruitvale Presbyterian. There a lot of blogs out there, but very few that have interesting content and are well-written. The fact Monte's blog is about Oakland and Christianity was a big bonus.

Fruitvale Presbyterian

When I decided to leave Resurrection Lutheran in Dublin, a big part of the reason was that K and I wanted to be able to worship together. I'd been at RLC for 9 years or so, and doing media for most of that. It had grown to the point where many Sundays felt like work (I was doing the media on a volunteer basis) not worship, and was ready to move on. After I left RLC, I added Fruitvale Presbyterian (FVPC) to our list of churches to check out. When I found out Monte had accepted a call to a church in France, K and I bumped it up in the list.

FVPC is a small church, but mighty in their acts. Monte gave a great sermon on love. Love is central to Christianity (or should be); Jesus answers the question of 'what is the greatest commandment?' with "love God, love your neighbor". It's the filter I view a lot of things through, particularly when a person claims such-and-such an act is 'Christian'. If it doesn't pass the "love God, love your neighbor" test, it's pretty suspect in my eyes. FVPC does their best to live out "love your neighbor" by being active in the community around them. I don't know yet if it's the right church for K and I, but it's definitely worth checking out if you live in the area.